as bill clinton would say, it's arithmetic. nothing is going to get done unless we find a way to work together. and i'll tell you, the public has just had it. well, you know, the approval rating of congress is in single digits. it's pretty awful. and it's all about, in my view, the inability to simply sit down and solve some of these problems. >> senator, quick question, brian sullivan from cnbc here. would you support a fiscal cliff resolution on taxes that did not involve an elevation of the top-end rate? in other words, 35 to 39.6, would you support a tax increase but only as boehner would like to do through the reductions or deductions, or are you fixed to that rate? >> well, i think we're fixed too much on this issue because it's only a small piece. even if you do the increase on the people above $250,000, it's a long way from solving the full problem. i'm a simpson-bowles guy myself in the sense that i think there's got to be an across-the-board settlement. so i think what you're really talking about is a temporary soluti